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Guest post by: Leanne Hoagland-Smith Become an Author

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Article marketing is a specific type of content marketing. The primary marketing goal is to design, develop, deliver and distribute content that attracts, builds interest, creates desire and provides a call to action to your existing pre-defined target market. Additional benefit of this marketing strategy is you begin to build long term relationships or what is none are nurture marketing.

With the explosion of the Internet as key marketing and sales strategies, article marketing when done correctly will increase sales. However after actively participating in this arena since 2005, I have noticed these 10 key mistakes that many sales professionals be they business coaches, sales coaches, insurance agents, financial advisors, accountants, lawyers or medical doctors.



Mistake #1

Article marketing is not integrated and aligned into an education based marketing approach. Unfortunately, some engage in article marketing and still practice products or sales based marketing which is all about interrupting the potential qualified customer (a.k.a. prospect). This is why permission must be granted first before sending any articles.



Mistake #2

There is no marketing plan. Many authors are engaged in spraying and praying their marketing efforts all over the place. When you are a written marketing plan, you will have specific goals for your article marketing efforts. These goals may include: submissions to article directory sites, blogging and monthly electronic newsletters.



Mistake #3

If you have no marketing plan, you probably do not know what to write. Therefore your content lacks value to the reader. Time is a precious resource. Expecting people to read your article just to read it is frankly lubricious. Sales Coaching Tip: Invest the time in researching your target marketing, current trends and market trends.



Mistake #4

Possibly you lack the skill set or expertise to write articles. You hand it off to someone else such as a ghostwriter. Even though your name is on the article, the reader is building a relationship with your ghostwriter and not with you. Sales Coaching Tip: The more you write, the better you think, the better you think, the more you start. Just start writing, you will improve.

Mistake #5

Many authors recycle existing content. Some do it well while most fail at it miserably. When your articles begin to sound the same or sound like last month’s, you have turned off your readers and violated their trust. Remember, they trust you not to waste their time.

Mistake #6

Your content lacks clarity. When your message is weak or foggy because you are unsure as to what your readers want, some readers may feel that you have provided a switch and bait approach to marketing. Again, this does not build trust.

Mistake #7

Your call to action is a selling pitch in disguise. Just because your article was read does not mean you have a relationship with the reader. The best calls to actions are for free offerings. Take the time to build the relationship before making any sales pitch.

Article marketing is a proven strategy to increase sales, direct new visitors to your website, improve traffic and ultimately increase revenue. By avoiding these 7 mistakes, you now have shorten your own learning curve and can realize your goal to increase sales far sooner.

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